S-T-R-E-T-C-H

Today I completed “Ring 2″ of my newest program, The 2012 Marketing Olympics. This ring is all about your social media profiles, and a webinar platform was perfect for this discussion. This project has been a lot of fun to put together, and there are so many great ideas with this theme. I’ve got to give a special shout out to my Mastermind buddies, my VA, and a local marketing friend. Without their not-so-gentle prodding, it wouldn’t have gone from conception to fruition in under a month…….Ta-Da!

So, today I want to talk about stretching yourself. (I believe I need to let the hem out of my pants now, I’ve grown that much.) Of course, it’s been a lot of long hours, and a lot of feedback in phone calls and emails, but I can say that this one is in the bag now.

One of my reasons for creating this program (besides just wanting to get all of this information out to my peeps) was to try out some new marketing tools this year, and this has been a combination of a LOT of them, with more to follow.  I did some advertising for the Marketing Olympics that I had never done before,  and also crafted and held a 2-part mini series leading up to the event. All very fun, but I must admit, I’m glad to have a few days until the next session; there are two more weeks of the main event, and my brain still spins long after I close my eyes at night.

A couple of years ago I did a monthly series of conference calls and had great response. I even used a webinar platform that was in Beta at the time, called Linqto. It runs with Facebook, and was a really cool tool. This go-round, I am trying out GoToWebinar, and so far, it has worked fine. In fact, I can see how I might want to use this a lot more for training sessions and consulting. My focus going forward is on a lot more training, so guess I need to have a tool like this in my back pocket.

Over the next couple of months I’m doing some other new things, and right now, some of those ideas haven’t even come together yet. I’ll be surprising myself, apparently. The timing is so right for me to stretch myself. If you read my last post about structure, you know that sometimes I need to have dates on the calendar and commit myself to doing things. The Marketing Olympics has been my structure the past month, and I’m loving it.

For me, creating this program has been a Gold Medal effort. What do you have brewing for the Gold?

How to Change the Order of Your Apps on Your Facebook Timeline

As promised in last week’s post which covered changing the icon on your custom apps, today’s post will teach you the steps for changing the order of your apps. The apps I am talking about are on your Facebook page, right under your cover photo.

On your Facebook page, you can have up to 12 custom apps available for visitors. Only 4 of them show up in the top row, so you want to use that space wisely. If you haven’t enabled some of the canned Facebook apps like Notes or Videos, you may only have a couple of apps showing. The Facebook Photos app will always be the left-most app, and you can’t change it’s position. The other apps can all change positions. Here’s how:

1. If you have more than 4 apps, there will be a small number in the drop-down box to the right side of the app area.
2. Click on this drop-down. It will open up all of the available apps.
3. Hover over the app that you want to move. A pencil appears.
4. Click on the pencil. In the window that pops open it says: “Swap position with”
5. Click on the name of the app you want to change positions with.
6. Presto, Change-o. The switch occurs.
7. Repeat for each app that you want to move.

Remember that you can’t hover and see the pencil until you click on the down arrow to the right side of the apps. There may not be a number in that box if you don’t have more than 4 apps yet. Not to worry…next time I’ll tell you how to get the Facebook canned apps to show up!

How to change the icon on your Facebook custom apps

One of the new options on your Facebook Timeline is the app/view/tab area that displays below your cover photo. There are 4 icons that show at any given time, although up to 12 will display in the drop down area.

The left-most icon will always be your Photos. Facebook doesn’t allow that to change positions. The photo on top of the icon is always the last one you uploaded. Some companies have a special icon or photo that they want to show at all times. If that is the case, you must re-upload that custom graphic or photo each time you add a different photo in a post.

Many businesses used to have custom landing tabs. After the rollover to Timeline, those are no longer landing tabs, but exist as custom tabs and are found in the same custom app area along with Photos, Notes, Videos, or any of the other 12 available spots. You will most likely want to create a custom icon/graphic for any custom app. Here’s what you need to know:

• Size 111 x 74 px
• Can use a photo or graphic
• You may want to match your branding
• Could include a call to action (remember that the cover photo can not)

Once you have created a custom graphic, here is how to add it

• Click on the down arrow to the right of the custom app area. It may have a number beside it, (in my case, “4″) which indicates how many additional apps are “hidden” beneath the ones that are showing. (up to 4 show)
• Hover over the app where you want to change the icon
• Click on the pencil that displays
• Select “Edit Settings” from the menu
• On the “Edit XXX Page Settings” window that pops up click on “Change” beside “Custom Tab Image.”
• Now you are on a screen entitled “Upload a Custom Image”
• Click on the blue “Change” and browse to find the custom image you want to use
• Once it has loaded, then you can close this window and go back to your Facebook page window. Click on “Okay“, and you will see your new custom image in place

And that is how you change the icon for your custom app! Next post: how to change the order of your custom apps.

Got the Facebook Timeline Blues?

Facebook Timeline has made my life very busy! It took me a couple of weeks to digest all of the changes and start loving it, but I am there! Well, loving MOST of it! I’ve been sending out emails and working one-on-one with clients, all intended to make sure they were aware of, and understood, the changes. Last week I taught two separate classes at CoHab to about 35 folks who were very interested in learning all of the details. There were lots of questions and, maybe like you, many of them are trying to comprehend the why’s and wherefore’s of Facebook’s grand design.

During one of my Facebook training sessions last week, we were discussing the new capability of back dating a post. One of my class participants suggested that this would be a great tool for those times when you want to add a lot of posts or pictures from an event, but you aren’t adding them “live.” So, let’s say you go to the event one week. On the following week you finally get around to entering the pictures and comments. You could change the date to reflect when the event actually occurred. Nice.

Another cool thing I did last week was to host my first live Facebook Chat.  It was a fast-paced hour of responding to a lot of marketing questions, and of course some about the new Timeline! Some of the questions were coming in live, and some of them had been posted earlier in the day. It was a lot of fun. However, that goofy Timeline made it a little harder to keep up with things. Thank goodness for the very prominent Page Notifications (live it!) and Posts By Others box. Normally, the Post By Others box is not something I appreciate, but in this case, I didn’t have to go marching all over to see who was posting what. I could go to one place and see them all!

While trolling around looking at Page after Page, I’ve seen some really cool branding, and picked up some good ideas. And, one thing that jumped out is how much Timeline is optimized for photos. Take a look at a Page that posts a lot of pictures. I see it on quite a few restaurant pages. They tend to take snaps of whatever the daily special is and post them about 10:30am…just about that time when everyone is starting to think about where they are going for lunch! Here’s a good example: (https://www.facebook.com/ralphandkacoosbossier)  Scroll down and see how great their page looks with all of the nice photos! Makes you want to run out and upload some more photos of your own!

On another note, I’m still waiting to hear a good reason from Facebook why they are putting an old, random post at the top of my Timeline. It just seems to serve no marketing purpose and is taking up valuable real estate.

Big Facebook Changes for Businesses

Oh, Facebook! Stop with the changes for a bit. Honest to Pete. The number of Facebook posts, blog posts, and articles I have read this week about all of the recent changes just have my head spinning. And I was already at information overload, if you remember. So goes the life of this Social Media Evangelist! For those of you who haven’t been sucked into the Facebook vortex recently, then you may want to read on and get a few of the updates.

Timeline is coming to Facebook Pages, and it’s available now for those who want to go ahead and switch over. The rest of the world will see the switch on March 30th when Facebook moves all Pages to the Timeline view. Many of you may already have Timeline on your personal profile. If you do, then you understand what your Page is going to look like. For the last couple of years I have done a lot of training on how to use all of the Facebook Page custom graphic space to market your business. With these announcements, some of that is over.

• 

  Timeline View

  Your profile picture is now a small square displaying at 125 x 125px. Prior to Timeline your profile picture could be 180 x 540px. Many businesses used the large size to include contact information, as well as a call to action. No more.

• Your new “cover photo” is a nice 851 x 315px and is solely used for branding. Again, no contact information, pricing, or calls to action. Facebook puts it this way:
  • No price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download at our website”
  • No contact information such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your About section
  • No references to user interface elements such as “Like”, “Share” or any other Facebook features
  • No call to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”
• There are no more landing pages in Timeline. All first time visitors and fans will come to your Cover Photo when visiting your page. Before, you could direct visitors to another tab, such as a Welcome page. One advantage to that was the ability to like-gate that landing page, thereby offering non-fans something in return for Liking your page. That “something” was not available to non-fans. This like-gating feature is supposed to still work on your custom pages still, but you won’t be able to have visitors land on them.
• There are 4 app (application) graphic buttons showing right below your cover photo. These can all have custom graphics (111 x 74px), and these CAN include a call to action!
• Here’s a cool one! You can now Pin a post to the top of your news feed for a week, thereby driving more engagement and views of a particular post. You might want to have a weekly tip, question, or video there, or announce an upcoming event or product.
• Links to your website or other contact information is prominently displayed in your About section found right below your new profile picture.
• Fans can send your page a direct private message. This functionality was previously available between 2 friends. What a cool way to build a relationship.
• Offers – this cool, free tool allows you to share discounts with your customers by posting an offer on your Facebook page. Offers are like coupons and don’t cost anything to create. When someone claims an offer, they’ll receive an email that they then show at the Page’s physical location to get the discount.
• Premium ads: so it’s no secret that Facebook doesn’t serve up your posts to all of your fans. It uses an algorithm called “edgerank” to determine who gets to see your posts. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that they have announced a new ad for business Pages. The state objective is to maximize your reach to 75% of your fans and double engagement. In fact, you get to choose what kind of goal criteria to optimize the ad with. There are 4 places Premium ads can appear.
  • At Facebook log out screen
  • In mobile News Feeds
  • On the right hand of the Home page
  • In desktop News Feeds

Over time there may be some tweaking of all of this, and certainly more changes, big and small as time marches on. Facebook is here for a while, and most of us are going to go along for that while! Overall, I like the changes that have come with Timeline. What is YOUR opinion of the changes? Please leave a comment below and let me know what you like or don’t like. Thanks!

Golden Nuggets, Part Deux

Lisa was a cracker jack to listen to!

If you just found this post and haven’t already seen Part One of the Golden Nuggets report, then click here to get the background. In short, these are some things that I wrote down during presentations at the recent National Speakers Association conference. The picture is of Lisa Sasevich (and me!), who had a two hour pre-conference session, plus a half day session later in the weekend.

So, on with the list…

1. “Learn to be uncomfortable.” This was one of the first things Lisa Sasevich said to us. If we want to grow we have to be willing to stretch and move way outside of our comfort zone.
2. “Mobile changes everything.” Randy Gage is right. Over half of the visitors to your website or to social media are getting there through their mobile device. If you’re website isn’t mobile ready, make plans to do that soon.
3. “Social media – if you don’t do it, you will be irrelevant.” Wow. A strong and powerful statement from Randy.
4. “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” This quote was retold by Randy Gage and reminds me to surround myself with rock stars.
5. “Remember, your clients are buying the destination, not the plane.” When creating your marketing materials you need to be talking about the benefits, not the features. Lisa is 100% correct.
6. “I’d rather collect a lead than BE a lead.” Now, this may or may not be true, but Lisa said she had just gotten business cards about 6 months ago and used this phrase as part of her explanation.
7. “A step in the wrong direction is better than staying in one spot all your life. Once you’re moving forward you can correct your course as you go. Your automatic guidance system cannot guide you when you’re standing still.” Maxwell Maltz. This was just a quote on a handout, and it’s really wonderful.
8. “In social media, it’s not who is talking TO you, it’s who is talking ABOUT you.” Science author Steve Spangler was sharing his failures in social media and this was one big thing he learned on the way to success.

I hope you found some of these inspiring or helpful. It’s always good to have something new to chew on, don’t you think? Just like last time, if you have a favorite, shoot me a comment below. Your thoughts are much appreciated! Hello? I’m listening…

#NSA12 Winter Conference Golden Nuggets

I recently joined the National Speakers Association (NSA), and their 2012 Winter Conference was this past weekend in Dallas. Over the course of three days I wrote plenty of notes, but wanted to share those golden nuggets that some of the high powered speakers said. In this funny picture with Brian Tracy I was actually having a conversation with him, and he was smart enough to answer me while looking at the camera! That’s why he is a go-zillionaire and I’m not.

There were so many fabulous tidbits that I decided to split the list in half. Look for the other half in my next post! Here are the first 8…

What did you say, Brian?

1. “It’s funny how flowers grow out of the dirt sometimes.” Lisa Sasevich was talking about how sometimes we feel we have a lot of nothing, but keep working away, until suddenly, success appears.
2. “Don’t change your act. Change your audience.” Again, a quote from Lisa when she was talking about her dad, Eddie Garson, who is a professional ventriloquist. This was something he used to tell her when she was tempted to change directions in her business.
3. “If you don’t board in the next 18 months, you do not reach the New World!” Love this quote from Brendon Burchard, author of The Millionaire Messenger. He was talking about how the next 18 months are critical to the development of our individual web presence and the ability to proliferate our message. We each need to own our topic online now or someone will take that spot instead.
4. “I don’t think competition. I think choice.” Brendon B, again. Many people feel the same way about others who are in the same business and space as we are. Let’s not view them as competitors. They really aren’t. We are our own unique business. Plus, we’re busy. We buy what’s in front of us. So capture that spot first!
5. “Does this really move the needle for the reader?” (Yes, BB) Is what you are talking about in your blog, ezine, social media posts really making a difference to your reader? If not, then course correct. Don’t just serve out “stuff.” And, continually ask if your work moves your OWN needle, too!
6. Here’s the one that probably impacted me the most. “We need to focus. The average American watches 4 hours of TV per day. Over your lifetime that equates to 13 years, people! The cost to you is over $2 Million in lost wages. And if that money were invested, a way greater sum.” Brendon Burchard was talking about productivity and discipline. (He was moving so fast, all my pictures of him are fuzzy! This is one high energy dude.) I am vowing to not waste time anymore during the day. Get up and get going.
7. “You’re not marketing to a grandstand. You’re marketing to a moving parade.” This pearl of wisdom is from superstar Alex Mandossian. Like Lisa’s Dad, he is saying to keep on with what you are doing; get better and better at it. New prospects and clients are always in the pipeline who haven’t experienced you before. Stay with your message.
8. “What gets measured gets treasured.” This was repeated by Valerie Cade and is pretty simple. If you want to achieve something, set some goals around it, look at your performance, and measure your performance towards getting there.

Well, you should have nodded and smiled at least a couple of times while reading these little gems. Feel free to print them out and post above your desk. I know I will.

Would you do me a favor and let me know which one was your favorite?  Thanks for sharing!

How To Create a List in Facebook to Keep Track of the Pages You Like

Problem: Have you noticed that some of the Facebook Pages you used to see posts from just aren’t there anymore? I know that I have noticed a big reduction in the pages that were coming across my news feed. And while I don’t necessarily want to see ALL of them, there are quite a few that I still wanted to hear from.

Solution: Luckily, there is an easy fix! You may already be familiar with Friend Lists in Facebook, right? Well, you can set up a Friend List for all your Pages. This gives you a one-click way to see only the posts from the Pages you choose. Here’s how.

• From your Home page in Facebook, find the “Lists” option in the left sidebar menu. As you hover over it, you will see either More or the word Add. Click there.
• Give your List a name, then click on Create.
• In the middle of the screen you’ll see an option to Add Friends. Click there.
• In the window that opens up, you’ll see the list of all your Friends. In the upper left corner, click on the arrow to change the default from Friends to Pages.
• Start clicking on the picture of the Pages you want to add to this list. When you are through, click on Finish.

Now, each day when you log into your Facebook account you can find the name of the List you just created and click on it. Voila! There are all the posts from each of the pages in your list.

A Small Bump in the Road, or Why I am Pouting

Can we talk here? I am glad this week is about over. My VA and I have been grinding our teeth over my move to a new email marketing software. It was motivated by a desire for 1 (only ONE!) function that was really important for me that I could not get with my other email marketing service. And I knew going into this transition that there were some functions I was giving up that were not as critical, but I didn’t know how much I was going to miss my other software. I just cut over today, and I am already almost sorry.

The blame for my feelings goes to being just a little more technical than is good for me. All my life I have been a problem solver. I analyze things and wonder why they are done the way they are. I see better solutions everywhere. So I have been shaking my head and scowling and possibly saying a few “salty” words every time another annoying function, or lack of function, raised it’s head. Yes, there are software solutions that are a much better fit for my needs and encompass everything I want. They are just more than I am willing to pay each month, and more than I need at this point. And no, I am not going to name names. (contact me if you must)

After this week, I am going to embrace and be happy with my new software. The one function it has is going to make all the difference in the world to my business, and so I’ll concentrate on that moving forward. Just not now. I have a few minutes of pouting to do.

7 Great Video Marketing Ideas

Developing marketing ideas that will attract prospects and cultivate clients is one part of my business that I love! Over the last couple of years I’ve been talking to everyone about creating videos. There hasn’t been a business yet that couldn’t benefit from creating videos. Hardly a week (or a day) goes by that I am not tempted to click on a video in Facebook and watch. If you haven’t started using videos for marketing your business, you are missing out on a popular tool.

Now, you may be thinking one of these things:

• I don’t know what kind of video to create. (of course that is why you need to continue reading…)
• I don’t have access to good video equipment.
• I hate to be in front of the camera.

Here’s the good news! You don’t need expensive equipment, I’m going to give you a lot of good ideas, and most of them don’t require you being in front of the camera! Most businesses can create a short video – 30 seconds to no more than 2 minutes – using a low-cost video camera. There are lots in the $175 range. I have a Kodak Zi8 that does a great job. Someone you know may have a Flip camera. Easy to do: Power on, shoot video, upload to YouTube, and post.  And honestly, I’m sure a lot of the videos that people create are taken using their smart phone.

Now, you’ve got the camera. Where are the ideas? Here are some of my favorites.

1. Give a tour of your office or location. Let us see what’s going on inside. You might show us the shop where your products are made, or introduce us to your customer support person. If you are a restaurant, how about a peek inside the kitchen. If you are a retail store, show us some of your wares.
2. Interview someone in your office. It’s nice to see and get to know the people you are working with.
3. Interview some of your clients – we’re talking video testimonials. Many would be very happy to oblige. Just ask!
4. Do some before and after videos. This could apply to building a house, style makeovers, personal organizers, or updating a website. Another variation that might fit some clients is explaining how your product works, or applications for your product.
5. FAQ’s are great to create videos for. What do people always ask you? Create a series of videos answering one question in each video.
6. Do regularly scheduled tips. Search for “legal minute” or “marketing tips” or something similar inside YouTube. You will find a lot of people give out tidbits of information in this fashion. If you are a fitness expert, create a video showing the proper way to do each exercise.
7. Do a video blog. This would be just you sitting in front of the camera telling the story or teaching the information in the way that you would have written it down.

Most of those ideas can even keep you off the video if you are not interested in being in them. Find someone else to be in the video if that is an issue. However, there is great power in building relationships if prospects can actually see you. Don’t miss out on that! Another tip is to vary the setting of your videos. One time you might be in your business outfit at your desk. Another time you might be outside on your patio in more casual wear. The viewer is more interested in what they are going to learn from you than what you are wearing or how your hair looks. (Depending on your business, you will have to use good judgement as to how casual you can go. I’m a firm believer in looking presentable at all times…)

Are you using videos yet? Please share some other video ideas in the comments!